10/1/25 - Democrats vs. Republicans: The Shutdown Showdown

Summary

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Mark Levin Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: Democrats vs. Republicans: The Shutdown Showdown
Date: October 2, 2025
Host: Ben Ferguson (in for Mark Levin)
Duration: ~1hr15min (core content reviewed)

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Overview

This episode focuses on the newly triggered federal government shutdown. Ben Ferguson, filling in for Mark Levin, vigorously frames the shutdown as a “Democrat shutdown” engineered by Chuck Schumer and party leadership to satisfy the party’s far-left wing. The show dissects the politics and alleged motivations behind the budget standoff, with special emphasis on partisan narratives, the fate of federal workers, health care funding for illegal immigrants, and the opportunity—according to guest conservatives—for Republicans to cut the bureaucracy and government “waste.”

The episode is combative and highly partisan, featuring multiple audio clips from politicians, spirited listener calls, and criticisms of mainstream media coverage.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Blame Game: Who Shut Down the Government?

• Democrats vs. Republicans: Ferguson insists that Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, shut down the government out of fear of their party’s left wing—especially Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)—and refusal to compromise on spending.
  • Quote: “Chuck Schumer is terrified of AOC primarying him. That is why Chuck Schumer has shut down the government. ... because he's afraid he's going to lose his leadership position.” — Ben Ferguson ([03:55])
• Lawmakers' Pay Controversy: The episode criticizes Democratic senators for keeping their pay while some government workers, including active-duty military, go unpaid.
  • Example: Senator Ruben Gallagher (D-AZ) said withholding his pay wasn’t feasible because he has “three kids,” which Ferguson attacks as hypocritical.
  • Ferguson uses the senator’s salary to mock this claim:
    • Quote: “If you are a United States senator and you can't miss a single paycheck, do we really want you running the country?” — Ben Ferguson ([06:04])

2. The Shut Down “Spin” and Media Narrative

• Democrats’ Messaging: Ferguson plays clips of Democratic Reps. Maxine Dexter and Peter Aguilar denying responsibility for the shutdown and blaming Republicans, which Ferguson aggressively calls a “lie.”
  • Quote: “You literally voted to shut down the government. ... Did you vote to shut down the government? Representative Maxine Dexter. Yes. So then why did you say that Democrats did not shut down the government?” ([09:45])
• Polls on Public Support: Ferguson cites polls showing a majority of Americans—and even Democrats—oppose a government shutdown, undercutting claims that “the people” support Democrats’ tactics. ([11:20])

3. Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants: Central Dispute

• Ferguson, along with prominent GOP voices, argues the shutdown centers on Democratic demands for taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants.
  • Reads from Rhode Island Medicaid and New York State public health websites, stating that illegal immigrants receive benefits before U.S. citizens.
  • Quote: “Their number one question they answer in Rhode Island is illegal immigrants. Then number two, they put families and children, then pregnant women, then older adults ... So if you want to know where you are in the pecking order in woke Rhode Island, illegal immigrants are their top priority.” ([25:00])
• Officials’ Statements: Repeatedly highlights that Democrats “prioritize illegals over American citizens” and play sleight-of-hand with legislative language.
• J.D. Vance (Vice President):
  • Quote: “It's a lie told by the Democrats that they're not trying to give health care benefits to illegal aliens. It's a lie that is obviously untrue if you just look at the text that they gave us. ... The contrast couldn't be more clear.” ([35:23] and [100:24])

4. Shutdown as Opportunity to Shrink Government

• GOP Optimism on Downsizing: Clips of Larry Kudlow and Russ Vought (former OMB director) position the shutdown as a “great opportunity” to “permanently” fire thousands of federal employees and eliminate unnecessary programs.
  • Quote: “This shutdown provides an opportunity to greatly reduce the size and scope of the federal government. And when that door opens, it’s important to walk through it.” — Larry Kudlow ([41:20])

5. Media and Democrat “Gaslighting”

• Ferguson accuses the media of amplifying Democratic spin and using emotional stories (e.g., TSA officers and veterans missing pay) as “ads” for the Democratic Party ([22:40], [24:32]).
• Quote (mocking local news): “Most TSA officers live paycheck to paycheck ... it’s not news. It’s an ad for the Democratic Party.” — Ben Ferguson ([23:13])

6. Listener Calls on Shutdown’s Merits

• Strong Support Among Callers: Listeners declare support for the shutdown as a means to reduce government waste and fire incompetent bureaucrats.
  • Caller Jim: “Everyone’s freaking out, like, this is a bad thing. This is exactly what I voted for. We have a million people we don’t need on the payroll. ... The government’s still doing its job.” ([76:44])
• Discussion on Senator Pay/Hours: Listener Spencer calculates senators’ hourly wage and criticizes them as “severely overpaid” and hypocritical for claiming they can’t miss a paycheck. ([113:28])

7. Rebuttals to Dem Criticisms of Trump

• Ferguson rejects claims that Trump is “unwell” or “immature,” highlighting Democratic talking points labeling this a “Trump shutdown.” Audio is played of Chuck Schumer, past and present, allegedly contradicting himself about shutdowns ([61:02]).

8. Breakdown of Democratic Demands

• Ferguson lists additional Democratic demands allegedly holding up a deal:
  • Restoring public broadcasting funds (NPR/PBS)
  • Revoking rural hospital funding
  • Massive climate and DEI spending, including for foreign nations
  • Continuing Obamacare subsidies ([50:41])

9. Closing Arguments

• Ben Ferguson and guests argue that Democrats’ refusal to accept a "clean" continuing resolution is out of step with American voters, who signaled in the last election they want less government spending, more border security, and an end to “woke” spending priorities.
• The show concludes with listener calls supporting dramatic government downsizing and deriding Democratic claims and media coverage.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Schumer’s Motives:

  • “Chuck Schumer is terrified of AOC ... That is why Chuck Schumer has shut down the government.” — Ben Ferguson ([03:55])

• On Lawmakers’ Pay:

  • “If you are a United States senator and you can't miss one paycheck, do I really want you?” — Ben Ferguson ([06:04])

• On Democrat Messaging:

  • “You literally voted to shut down the government ... then why did you say that Democrats did not shut down the government?” — Ben Ferguson ([09:45])

• Healthcare Prioritization:

  • “If you want to know where you are in the pecking order in woke Rhode Island, illegal immigrants are their top priority.” — Ben Ferguson ([25:00])
  • “The Democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit illegal aliens. The contrast couldn’t be more clear.” — VP J.D. Vance ([35:23] and [100:24])

• On Shrinking the Government:

  • “This shutdown provides an opportunity to greatly reduce the size and scope of the federal government.” — Larry Kudlow ([41:20])

• Listener Reaction:

  • “Everyone’s freaking out, like, this is a bad thing. This is exactly what I voted for. We have a million people we don’t need on the payroll.” — “Jim” ([76:44])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Blame on Schumer and Dems: [03:55], [04:35], [06:04]
• Lawmakers on Pay: [01:25], [06:04], [113:28]
• Dem Reps. on Blame: [09:45], [12:13]
• Polls about public opinion: [11:20], [38:08]
• Demands for illegal immigrant healthcare: [25:00], [50:41], [86:24]
• Kudlow on shrinking bureaucracy: [41:20]
• Listener support for shutdown/cuts: [73:32], [76:44], [113:28]
• VP J.D. Vance on Democratic lies: [35:23], [100:24]

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Memorable Moments

• Ben Ferguson uses Siri on air to demonstrate a senator’s large salary and lampoons lawmakers for whining about delayed pay ([06:04]).
• Multiple audio montages of Democrats both denying responsibility for the shutdown and admitting on video that they would prefer a shutdown to losing on their issues ([12:13], [25:00]).
• Ferguson “debates” a caller who accuses Trump of cozying up to dictators, catching the caller misidentifying leaders and poking fun at “Trump Derangement Syndrome” ([105:01]).

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Tone & Style

• Confrontational, passionate, and overtly conservative.
• Frequent use of sarcasm and mockery toward Democratic officials and the media.
• Heavy repetition of the phrase “Schumer shutdown,” calls Democrats “liars,” “scumbags,” and “idiots.”
• Blunt encouragement to downsize government as a permanent solution.

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Conclusion

This episode positions the government shutdown as a calculated Democratic maneuver, painting Republicans as fighting for fiscal sanity and American citizens—while accusing Democrats of lying and prioritizing “illegals.” Ferguson and guests assert the shutdown is a strategic opportunity to shrink government, attacking media coverage as propaganda and lampooning Democratic messaging. Listener sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of budget cuts and governmental downsizing, while efforts to blame Trump or Republicans are dismissed as dishonest “gaslighting.”

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For listeners who missed the episode:
Expect a relentless defense of the Republican position, sharp-edged criticism of Democratic leaders, and repeated assertions that this crisis is both a Democrat-created spectacle—and a rare chance to “clean house” in Washington.

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Note:
Ads, show promos, and sponsor plugs have been omitted from this summary per request. For all referenced audio, check the episode or Ben Ferguson’s own podcast as noted in multiple mentions throughout the show.

Transcript

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

You know, America's best days have yet to come. And that's because conservatives like you live the values of our great country. The Heritage foundation ensures your voice is heard in the Washington swamp every day, shining the light on a bright future. The Heritage foundation stands for your values. And they won't give up the fight because they know you never will. Paid for by the Heritage Foundation.

[Ben Ferguson]

He's here. He's here now. Broadcasting from the underground command post deep in the bowels of a hidden bunker somewhere unto the the brick and steel of a non descript building. We've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Len.

Welcome, it is the Mark Levin Show. It is nice to have you with us. Mark will be back with you tomorrow and we're going to hold down the fort for you tonight with this government shutdown. You guys doing okay? Cause if, if you watch the media right now, I think they think we're all in the feed out position and we don't know what to do because there's a government shutdown. Meanwhile, I'm like, this is awesome. Like, let's start firing some people. Let's get rid of some bureaucrats. Let's save some money. Now of course somebody's gonna freak out that I said that and take it out of context and they're gonna be like, ben, Ben. Ferguson wants people to lose their jobs only if you suck at your job. Like if you, if you're a partisan hack in the government and you suck at your job and, and we haven't been able to fire you before, like, let's do it right now. I'm in favor of doging it up as, as they say in a very, very, very big way. But if you look at the media right now, they're going out there to find little Susie and little Timmy who are crying tonight because they were coming to the US Capitol and it shut down. Now, of course they're going to try to blame that shutdown on Donald Trump and conservatives. We all know this is a Schumer shutdown. That is what this is. And if you just want to know how bad the Democrats are, they don't want like, like serious people in our government to get paid during the government shutdown. But damn it, they're going to get paid. Some lawmakers are actually saying they are going to send a letter. Many of them have to withhold their paychecks during the shutdown. But other lawmakers are like, nope, I ain't doing that. Quote, I'm not wealthy and I have three kids. I would basically be missing mortgage payments, rent payments, child support. That is what Senator Reuben Gallagher had to say, the Democrat from Arizona to NBC News. So it's not feasible. It's not gonna happen. So, like, yeah, I'll make sure because we're playing politics in the Democratic Party that other people that maybe have three kids or have a mortgage payment or rent payment or child support, they'll go without a paycheck. But I'm a senator, dammit, and I'm a Democratic senator, and it's not feasible for me. It's not going to happen. Well, where's the same compassion, Senator Gallagher, for for all the average government workers? Remember, they don't give a crap about you. Now, there are other members of Congress that have sent the letters because that's how it works, to say don't pay me. And, and also, let's dial down the crazy for a second. Everybody's going to get their pay. It's just going to be delayed. It depends on how long Chuck Schumer wants to delay people getting paid. Right? Or is this. And by the way, I put the tweet out there so you guys can see it. My good buddy Steve Guest put this tweet out. I retweeted a moment ago. So you can follow it, you can send out there, go online at Ben Ferguson show on X. And you can see all of these lawmakers and just their scumbaggery 101, like, oh, I can't miss a paycheck. I just, I just can't do it. But let me go back to why this is actually even happening right now. This is the part that all of you need to understand, which is like, why is this a thing? All right, well, let's just start with the basics. Chuck Schumer is terrified of AOC primarying him. That is why Chuck Schumer has shut down the government. Because if he didn't shut down the government, he's afraid he's going to lose his leadership position and he will be primary Senator Ted Cruz, who is one of those in the Senate dealing with this, here's what he had to say on his show Verdict with Ted Cruz podcast. Listen. And Chuck Schumer nearly lost his job because Schumer allowed the government to be funded. Several months ago, the left wing rose up against him. And you want to understand why we have a shutdown.

[Vice President J.D. Vance]

It's one thing Schumer is looking over.

[Ben Ferguson]

His left shoulder and he sees AOC running up behind him and he is terrified he's going to lose his job. So listen, Schumer knows this is not going to work. He knows this is failure. This is just pure. Cover your AWS Politics 101 by Schumer. And there it is. That's what it is. It is. Cover your AWS 101. That is why you have the Schumer shutdown. And that's why Democrats like, dude, I got to take my paycheck. I got too many babies to feed. I got mortgage and rent payments. Now the government workers that make less than the United States Senator, screw them, right? I also just had to bring this up, and I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm going to just. I'm just going to just kind of state the obvious here. If you are a United States senator and you can't miss a single paycheck, do we really want you running the country? I, I, I, I'm, I mean, senators. What, what is the. In fact, I'm going to ask what they. I'm going to add. This is what I love. Technology. Hey, Siri, what does a United States Senator make per year? Wait for it. $174,000 annually. All right, so we got this guy who's a senator saying, quote, I'm not wealthy, and I have three kids, and I would basically be missing mortgage payments, rent payments, child support. So it's not feasible. Not going to happen. But I will happily shut down the government, be a part of that shutdown with Chuck Schumer, because he's afraid of aoc and screw the other workers who are in the situation, and somehow he wants me to feel sorry for him making $174,000 a year. If you are a United States Senator and you can't miss one paycheck, do I really want you? If you're teetering, you're living. I mean, what, what, what, what, Scott? I mean, what the Senator Rubin Gallagher was saying is, I can't afford to miss a paycheck. I am living paycheck to paycheck. Dude, that is messed up on so many different levels because you're in charge of the United States government, but you're living paycheck to paycheck. Like, I thought we were supposed to send our best and our brightest to do this job. If I'm making $174,000 a year, I assure you, I am not going to be a scenario where I can't miss a payment. Like, my whole life is screwed in one month. Like, $174,000. You should have some emergency funds. To quote the great Dave Ramsey, right? You should Have a couple months. And also, let's be clear. If you're a Democrat and you know that Democrats love shutting down the government, right? Like, like. I'm being serious. Okay? If. If you are a Democrat and you know it's coming, then why didn't you plan ahead for this? Oh, wait. Because you don't give a crap about the people you're hurting. You don't give a crap about the workers that are actually living paycheck to paycheck, like you don't care. It is all about you, full stop, plain and simple. Which brings me back to the Democrats in general. This is the same party, by the way, that has been obsessed, right, like, completely obsessed with this idea that we should never, under any circumstances, shut down the government. Because that's just wrong and evil. We have montage after montage after montage of Democrats who are saying it. I'm going to play that for you in a minute. But here's the other thing. Listen to Hakeem Jeffries on the House side. He was asked about cashing their checks while the troops are going unpaid during the Democratic shutdown. So you're. You're halfway around the world. You're protecting, defending this country. You're not getting paid, but damn it, the people wearing suits in D.C. are.

[White House Press Secretary]

So there's been several members of Congress that have asked. Bill, Katie withheld, if this shutdown exists.

[Ben Ferguson]

Do you advise Democratic members to now.

[White House Press Secretary]

Or is it up to them?

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, that's a question that every individual member is going to have to make on their own, as has always been the case in the past. First of all, that question is not even a ripe one because we're anticipating.

That this shutdown issue will be resolved.

I love this. Right. Well, I'm not going to answer that question. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not going to. I'm not. That's something. I'm just. I'm not going to answer that question. Okay, so we have Democrats that are holding America hostage. Democratic Representative Maxine Dexter, who voted to shut down the government, said this about Democrats today. I'll just say it again. We did not shut down the government. The Republicans. Yes, you did. You literally voted to shut down the government. Democratic Representative Maxine Dexter went on News Nation and just lied to the American people. I'll play it for you again. She voted literally to shut down the government. I'll just say it again. We did not shut down the government. The Republicans have not been at the table bringing us into the negotiations. They need 60 votes in the Senate. So there is no debate here on whose responsibility, on who's responsible for shutting down the government. Okay, let's go to the record. Did you vote to shut down the government? Representative MAXINE Dexter. Yes. So then why did you say that Democrats did not shut down the government? Then you acknowledge The Senate needs 60 votes to pass the federal funding bill, which Democrats voted against. It's how we didn't get the 60 votes. Republicans weren't voting against it. I think there was one Rand Paul, who always votes against it. At least he's a principal guy. And Democratic California Representative Peter Aguilar. He went in front of the media earlier today, and here's what he said. Again, lying. He believes that you, the American people are in favor of the shutdown. The. The American people are, are focused on this.

[Vice President J.D. Vance]

They're.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

They support our efforts to protect their health care funding.

[Ben Ferguson]

The. The American people. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, hold on a second. The American people are in favor of this. They support the Democratic shutdown. What poll are you reading? Is it the bottom of a pitcher of beer? Is it next to some illegal drugs or fentanyl? I mean, what world are you in? Oh, wait, hold on a second. Let me go to the New York Times real quick, because what he just said was the American people are in favor of this. All right, New York Times, Senate, Sienna poll views on whether the Democrats should or should not shut down the government if their demands are not met. All respondents, 65% said should not. Only 27% of the psychos out there said should. Even among Democrats, 43% of Democrats said they should not shut down the government. 47% of Democrats they should. Of independents, 59% said they should not shut down the government. Only 32% said they should. And then let's go to the Republicans. 92% of Republicans said we should not shut down the government. Only 5% said we should. So, so let me go back to the liar here. Democratic Representative Peter Aguilar, lying to you, the American people, yet again. The. The American people are, are focused on this.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

They support our efforts to protect their health care funding.

[Ben Ferguson]

That's a lie, by the way. You guys aren't supporting our health care fundings. You know what was in their demand? Their demand was, yes, we're going to shut down the government for illegal immigrants. Democrats block the Republicans clean, meaning no add ons continuing resolution that would have kept the government open at the same exact burn rate of money as it was yesterday. Instead, Democrats demanded 1.5 trillion for the radical agenda that the American people voted down in the last presidential election. That also includes government funding for illegal immigrants, health care. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett said, quote, the government's officially shut down. Make no mistake, Republicans control the House, Senate, the White House. This is their shutdown. That's a lie. You have to have 60 votes in the, in the Senate. There's not 60 Republicans in the Senate. You're a liar. They had every tool to govern and choose chaos instead. The American people are the ones paying the price. Jasmine, you are a liar. You're a scumbag liar. She knows. Maybe she doesn't. She might actually be this dumb. So let's just give her a quick history lesson. The Senate requires 60 votes to pass the funding bill. Maybe Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett is too stupid and spending too much time on TikTok and doesn't know that, but now she does. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one, Mark Levin. We'll be right back.

Mark Levin.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

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[Ben Ferguson]

Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great one. I know the phone lines get jammed, so if you want to reach out to me on x Ben Ferguson show also you can follow me on Facebook. Ben Ferguson there. And if you're on Instagram, it's a little different. Ben Ferguson Podcast all by the way of the audio clips I'm playing for. You are going to be in the podcast tomorrow so you can download my podcast. The Ben Ferguson Podcast. I'll put them in there. And yeah, so make sure you follow me there, because I'd love to keep up with you. So if you listen to podcasts every morning, grab mine. Ben Ferguson podcast. Let's get back to what I was mentioning earlier about Democrats. So here's what's even more interesting, by the way, about Democrats. And just they're lying. So you've got some Democrats out there, like, well, the Republicans chose to do this. And, and then there's others that say, well, they're like, well, the American people support the Democratic shutdown. So that's another spin. So there's actually three kind of stories here. And then there's this other story, Jasmine Crockett saying the Republicans are the ones that did this. She's an idiot. And then you've got this weird Democrat who actually was at the airport putting up a video admitting, as a congressman, the Democrats chose to shut down the government. So my question to the Democrats is like, can you guys at least get your story right? Like, can y' all text each other and be like, hey, we're all gonna go with this? Returning back to Detroit this morning after the Republicans failed to show up in the US House. We got to make sure Americans have the health care that they need. And if that means we got to shut this government down, so be it. Yeah. So, I mean, we got to just shut down. It means if we got to shut down the government, so be it. So there's, there's you a weird congressman, Democratic New Hampshire Senator Shaheen. Here's what she had to say about the government and the shutdown, and listen to who she's blaming. So, like, none of their stories even match within their own party.

[White House Press Secretary]

The reality is the Republicans control all three branches of government. They control the White House, they control both houses of Congress, and many would say they control the Supreme Court. So I think ultimately people will question why, given that they have not been able to avoid a shutdown.

[Ben Ferguson]

It takes 60 votes. That means Republicans are the ones that have to have Democrats that agree to a cr. And then ultimately to funding the government, you idiot. White House press secretary saying this today about the government shutdown. Listen carefully.

[White House Press Secretary]

Democrats in Congress have officially shut down the United States government. House Republicans passed a nonpartisan, clean piece of legislation to extend current government funding until November 21st. But nearly every single Democrat senator voted against this bill. To be clear, this was the exact same bill that Democrats approved six short months ago in March, just adjusted for inflation. This is the same kind of clean funding bill that Democrats passed 13 separate times when they held the majority during Joe Biden's administration. So the American people woke up this morning and asked the obvious question, why is the government shut down right now? The answer is pure partisan politics being played by the Democrat Party. The Democrats shut down the government because President Trump and the Republicans will not force American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens. America is $37 trillion in debt. We cannot afford to provide taxpayer funded free health care to illegals who broke the law to enter our country.

[Ben Ferguson]

Oh, isn't that interesting? Wow. So Republicans are not going to force the American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens because we're 37 trillion in debt and we can't afford to pay for that free health care for illegals who broke this country. Period. Wow. Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. We'll be right back.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

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[Ben Ferguson]

Want to get some of your phone calls in here? 1-8773-8138-1187-7381-300811. By the way, let me just back up for a second. I'm going to back it up about 10 seconds and I want to play in its entirety what the White House press secretary, Carolyn Levitt said about the Democratic Democrats shutting down the government. Where there are Democrats on record, elected officials who said that they were shutting down the government voted to shut down the government. And then they want to act like, oh, we didn't actually do that, like, I'm sorry, I'm calling bs. Keep listening.

[White House Press Secretary]

So the American people woke up this morning and asked the obvious question, why is the government shut down right now? The answer is pure partisan politics being played by the Democrat Party. The Democrats shut down the government because President Trump and the Republicans will not force American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens. America is $37 trillion in debt. We cannot afford to provide taxpayer funded free health care to illegals who broke the law to enter our country. To put this all into perspective, the Democrats refused to keep the government open over health care to illegal aliens and now have jeopardized critical health care programs for American citizens instead. The Women, Infants and Children program, community Health center funding, Medicare treatment options and other health programs are now all at risk because of the Democrats rejecting the clean cr. The most vulnerable in our country are being punished because the Democrats want to prioritize illegals over American citizens. And if Democrats actually cared about health care, they would applaud the actions taken by President Trump. Just yesterday in the Oval Office, he took a bold and massively popular action to improve our health care system. He announced the first agreement with a major pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, to lower drug costs. And for Americans, this is a historical achievement long sought by past Democrat presidents that only President Trump was able to get done.

[Ben Ferguson]

So you listen to that. And again, she's right about all of it. Now, what is the media saying about this? Well, let me take you to Atlanta. CBS News, Atlanta. They want you to cry and feel sorry for the TSA officers who are just living paycheck to paycheck. Listen carefully. Most TSA officers live paycheck to paycheck. The issue comes in is, when I don't receive a paycheck, how am I supposed to get to work? Where am I going to get the gas to put in my car to come to work?

Or how do I feed my family?

Or how do I buy diapers?

[White House Press Secretary]

Aaron Barker is a TSA officer and.

[Ben Ferguson]

The president of AFGE Local 554, the union that represents TSA officers. He says if the shutdown lasts longer than a few days, travelers will feel the impact without having a first. A paycheck is when the problems will arise. Most tsa, I mean, you, you gotta laugh because they do this ad, like, somehow to make it seem like I call it an ad. It's not news. It's an ad for the Democratic Party. Democratic senators Ossif and Warnock voted for this. Go look at their votes. So if you're a TSA officer in Atlanta at the airport, there's. You should be angry, okay? Like, you should be furious. Chuck Schumer, five hours ago. It is not radical to say Americans don't deserve to see their premiums double because of Republicans. By the way, it's also not radical to say Americans shouldn't pay for Medicaid for illegal immigrants. Local news again, Georgia, two of the centers there, Ossif and Warnock vote. Both them voted to shut down the government. Here's what a Georgia veteran said to the local news.

[White House Press Secretary]

Alonzo Sermons is now a veteran, but he remembers the fear of being a service member during shutdowns.

[Ben Ferguson]

It's really a tough time. It's always last minute, which is the challenge. And not only that, it's impacting not only just average people, but my fellow veterans who are out on base, they're impacted by it. And we're so close to the holidays and we're talking about people's livelihoods, their revenue.

[White House Press Secretary]

Alonzo Sermons is now a veteran.

[Ben Ferguson]

I mean, I'm sorry. Like, this is a Georgia veteran describing the consequences. And not one, but two of his senators in Georgia, Warnock and Ossif both voted for this shutdown, which then other Democrats like. Well, say we didn't shut down the government. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Let me also tell you what different states are doing so you understand how bad it is. All right? You should find out what's happening in your state where you are right now, because Rhode Island's Medicaid program proudly states online that undocumented residents are eligible. Yeah. Go to the Rhode Island Medicaid program's website and it says health insurance for your family. Then it says Medicaid helps you get affordable health care when you need it. You can enroll anytime, but don't wait. Make sure you and your family stay healthy year round. So who may be eligible? They have with a big question mark on their website. Here's what it says. Children and teens up to 19. All children are eligible under cover. All kids, regardless of immigration status. Okay. So that would be illegal immigrants, including children who are undocumented and DACA recipients. So any illegal immigrant, just come on down in Rhode island and we're happy to cover your health care before that. Okay, so they put this is who's eligible? Their number one question they answer in Rhode island is illegal immigrants. Then number two, they put families and children, then pregnant women, then older adults, and then people with disabilities. So if you want to know where you are in the pecking order in in woke Rhode island, illegal immigrants are their top priority based on how they're listing those that are eligible. Then it says youth aging out of foster care, then U.S. citizens and certain lawfully resident present immigrants. So if you're a U.S. citizen you're like the last one on the list in Rhode Island. But the first group they want to talk to is illegal immigrants. So healthcare for illegal immigrants is the new immigrants are eating cats and dogs in Springfield is what Sheldon Whitehouse said. Senator Whitehouse saying the Republican playbook is simple make up baseless lies, repeat it every chance you get. Hope and pray that everyone blames Democrats. That's why I'm telling you exactly what is on the website in Rhode Island. Senator Whitehouse, you're a lying scumbag. New health insurance options for undocumented immigrants over 65 New York State of Health There's a website the senator from New York shut down the government because the far left wants Americans to pay for Medicaid for illegals. And here's what it says on their website, quote, Starting January 1, 2024, there's a new option for health insurance available for undocumented immigrants that would be illegal immigrants over age 65. It's on their website folks. It is on their website. The Senator from New York, here's the video he put out about Washington D.C. and the shutdown and listen to his lies. Hey everybody, I'm still down here in Washington D.C. the Senate just had a vote which failed, which means a shutdown at 12 o' clock tonight is very, very likely. And this is going to be very painful for a lot of people and very difficult. This whole idea of my way or the highway that the Republicans have been pushing is not the way to go. We've got to negotiate to try and keep the government open or get it reopened. I should say number two, we've got to try and do something to keep the health insurance cost of people down. They're about to skyrocket because of the expiration of these premium tax credits. It's going to be very, very painful and very shocking for a lot of people all over the country. It's going to affect your health insurance premiums because more people that get kicked off their insurance because they can't afford it makes everybody else's health insurance more expensive. And the President and the White House have got to stop these unilateral cuts, this chaos they're trying to promote and this idea that they're looking forward to a shutdown because they can do a lot more cuts that they wouldn't be able to do otherwise. I'm very concerned about that. I did a post about that earlier today. So please everybody stay in touch, keep track of what's going on, follow what's going on. Let's work together to solve problems that face the people of the United States of America. This guy just put this video out, is the guy who just should have said, hey, I just left the Senate floor. I voted to shut down the government and I voted to shut down the government because I was angry that we weren't giving illegal immigrants health care. The Schumer shutdown is a disaster. There's actually absolutely no point in the government being shut down right now. Now they shut down the government because of their demands. What were the Democrats demands? They wanted to add $1.5 trillion to the national debt just to fund the government for three months, by the way. That's insane. It's not sustainable. And it was for every pork barrel crazy project like transition surgeries being covered and illegal immigrants getting health care. And they wanted you to spend 1.5 trillion of your tax dollars in a 90 day period to keep the government open. Government shutdown, by the way, is pure political theater. We know this. We know what the media does. Every single time. We know what the media does and they don't tell you the full story and they lie to you. And there was no real negotiations here. This was clearly pre planned and even the Democrats can't decide did they do it? Did they not do it? Because many Democrats are now furious with the Indian, Indian born representative for admitting that they shut down the government. I played it earlier, I'll play it again because it's important. I don't think he realized what a dummy he was being, but he told the truth. Returning back to Detroit this morning after the Republicans failed to show up in the US House. We got to make sure Americans have the health care that they need. And if that means they got to shut this government down, so be it. I mean, it's amazing. So they're telling you they did it, now they're saying that they didn't do it. And now they're trying to say that it's somehow not their fault, that they were being insane, trying to relitigate what the American people just voted on. What did the American people vote on? They voted on Donald Trump cutting the spinning of government number one. They voted to stop allowing for open borders. They voted to stop, to stop the insanity with illegal immigrants being treated better than American citizens. And only 47% of even Democrats support a shutdown over their party's demands. So why did Schumer do it? It was one reason. It was one reason only. They decided to shut it down because Chuck Schumer was afraid of the Marxist communists and socialists in his party. And AOC is someone he is terrified of, absolutely terrified to be around because he's afraid that she's going to primary him. So he's had to show. I can be crazy and irrational and insane, too. Ben Ferguson with you. Your phone calls, 877-3813-8118-7738-1381. Ben Ferguson with you. We'll be right back.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

The youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow. And it's more critical now than ever that we train up the next generation to fearlessly defend conservative values. The Heritage Foundation's Young Leaders Program equips young conservatives with the principled foundation and policy knowledge needed to stand up in a world increasingly hostile to conservatives. The Young Leaders Program is more than an internship. Participants work right alongside Heritage professionals and they learn valuable workplace skills. They attend weekly policy briefings from Heritage's top experts and have access to practical skill building workshops. They visit historical sites in Washington and even unparalleled mentorship opportunities. If you or anyone in your life is looking to spend a semester in our nation's capital with the best and the brightest of the conservative movement, please go to heritage.org Levin heritage.org Levin go there today. Learn more about the Young Leaders Program applications for the spring semester close October 5th. So you have to hurry. Our nation's future depends on patriots like you spreading the word to make sure the next generation is equipped. Go to heritage.orglevin today. That's heritage.org Levin paid for by the Heritage Foundation.

[Ben Ferguson]

Welcome back. It's Mark Levin show. He is off tonight. Be back with you manana. It's a pleasure to fill in for him on this big day of a government shutdown created, designed, orchestrated and made love to by the Democratic Party. They did this for one reason. Chuck Schumer needed some cover with the radical Marxist, socialist and communists in his party and he's afraid AOC is going to challenge him in the Senate seat in New York. So they said, screw it. Shut down the government to show that you're an extremist. JD Vance at the White House saying this.

[Vice President J.D. Vance]

That'S a lot.

[Ben Ferguson]

Matt Boyle, Mr. Vice President, there's two key Democrat lies I would like to get you to take on and see if you can address.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

The first is that you're seeing a.

[Ben Ferguson]

Number of top Democrat leaders from Kamala Harris to Chuck Schumer to Hakeem Jeffries.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

Claim that it is a Republican shutdown caused by Trump.

[Ben Ferguson]

The second is, is that they're out there now claiming that they don't make want to give health care to illegal aliens. Can you address both of those lies from the Democrat Party?

[Vice President J.D. Vance]

Yes. So on the point that it's a Republican shutdown, look, it's obviously a Democratic shutdown. Just look at the vote totals in the House, look at the vote totals in the Senate and look at the President of the United States own action and conduct throughout this crisis. Nearly every single House Republican voted to open the government mat nearly every single Senate Republican voted to open the government last night. And even to their credit, a few moderate Democrats voted to open the government. That's not a Republican shutdown. When nearly every single Senate Democrat votes to shut it down and every Republican voted to open it up, it's just obviously not true. Now, you can disagree about a number of things, but you can't disagree about the obvious fact that Republicans voted to open the government. The President stands ready to sign that opening of the government. We just need a few more Democrats to join us in that effort to open the government. Your final question about illegal alien benefits. Look, the text is very clear. And I even saw, I think it was George Stephanopoulos in an interview with Mike Johnson did a fact check that was totally rooted in baseless claims. It was basically Democrat propaganda. If you look at the legislative text that they gave us, they tried to turn on two separate provisions that would give health care benefits to illegal aliens. Number one, if you're an American citizen, you've been to a hospital in the last few years, you probably noticed that wait times are especially large. And very often somebody who's there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien. Very often a person who can't even speak English. Why do those people get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens? The answer is a decision made by the Biden administration that the Trump administration, working with Congressional Republicans undid. We turned off that money supply bigot to health care funding for illegal aliens. The Democrats in their legislative texts want to turn it back on. That's one thing. The second thing, Matt, is we all know that there are various ways in which the Biden administration waved away illegal immigration status. They gave parolees, they gave asylum claims to people who were really claiming asylum. And when they Waved the magic wand of amnesty, giving millions of people legal status, status even though they were in the country illegally. They also gave those people access to health care benefits. So what the Democrats are engaging in is a sleight of hand. They're saying, no, no, no, those weren't illegal aliens who were getting health care benefits even though everybody, excuse me, knows they were in the country illegally. It's a lie told by the Democrats that they're not trying to give health care benefits to illegal aliens. It's a lie that is obviously untrue if you just look at the text that, that they gave us. And all you have to do is understand that this is about who benefits. We think the American people's government ought to benefit American citizens. The Democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit illegal aliens. The contrast couldn't be more clear.

[Ben Ferguson]

There it is, the vice President, United States of America, preaching truth on this government shutdown. He is totally correct in what he said there, 1,000% accurate. And so the Democrats, they're now in a bad spot. The American people are against this hell of the. A lot of the people in the Democratic Party are against it. Independents are overwhelmingly against it. When you've lost 40 plus percent of your own party before you shut it down, I, I, I go back to the numbers. New York Times poll, 65% of Americans say, don't shut down the government. Only 27% say yes. 43% of Democrats say don't shut it down. 59% of independents and 92% of Republicans say don't shut it down. This is what being held hostage looks like. The Democratic Party party doesn't care about Americans. They care about illegal immigrants. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great Lamar Levin. We'll be right back.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

This segment of the podcast is exclusively sponsored by Pure Talk. PureTalk offers great coverage and can save your family money on your wireless bill every single month. Go to PureTalk.com to find the plan that's right for you. Thank you again for listening and thank you so much for this sponsorship. Pure Talk.

[Ben Ferguson]

He's here.

He's here.

Now, broadcasting from the underground command post deep in the bowels of a hidden bunker somewhere under the brick and steel of a nondescript building. We've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Leven.

Our two Markovin show, Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. He will be back with you, I can assure you, Lord willing, manana will be. But in the meantime, we got a government shutdown and we got an awful lot to chat about. Jim Jordan asked the question, you know, CNN has those I got you questions, right? How long will the shutdown last? His response, Congressman, very briefly, how long do you think this is going to last? I have no idea. That's the one person who can answer that question is Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer, how long is it going to last? Because all he's got to do is vote for what he did before. There it is. Ask Chuck Schumer. I love how CNN's like, well, how long is this going to like? I mean, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Larry Kudlow, FOX Business Channel, saying this about the shutdown, saying it's actually a great opportunity, an opportunity to reduce the size and the scope of the federal government. All right, folks, rest vote. Russ Boat will seize this opportunity. That's the subject of the rift. Look, nobody's thrilled about government shutdowns. They're disruptive, they're acrimonious, disorderly, and get a lot more public attention than they really deserve. Meanwhile, there's no economic or stock market impact. In fact, as I said, a couple of these stock indexes actually hit record highs again today. Shutdowns don't affect essential programs either. Not affect Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, military operations or others. But we do have a shutdown. And I'm going to say it. This shutdown provides an opportunity to greatly reduce the size and scope of the federal government. And when that door opens, it's important to walk through it. What's more, the quarterback of this opportunity is Russ Vote, the OMB director. I can't think of a better person to be in that exact spot at exactly this moment. Russ has been working hard on these issues for many years. And because he's been working on these issues in and out of government for many years, he is ready to take the opportunity with an action plan. Now, here's what he told me yesterday. Please take a listen. You have the authority, the power, as I understand it, to actually, to actually cut jobs and cut programs rather than just furlough them. Is that the case, Russ? We do. We have the authority to make permanent.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

Change to the bureaucracy here in government.

[Ben Ferguson]

And I think the takeaway for the American people is that we are on the brink of a government shutdown that is caused entirely by Democrats based on their outrageous demands of about $1.5 trillion.

[Vice President J.D. Vance]

We're not going to be held hostage to these kinds of insane, ridiculous demands by the Democrats.

[Ben Ferguson]

Oh, there you have it pretty clear to me now. Russ is unencumbered by institutional restraints and by that I mean he's never served as a senator or as a House member. He was the OMB director in the first term when we worked together, became good friends. But that experience just sharpened his instincts and his knowledge. I don't know how many federal employees he will fire during this shutdown. I don't know how many programs he will eliminate. But there are hundreds of unnecessary programs and by one account in this morning's papers, something like 800,000. I think unnecessary federal employees could be on the chopping block now. Some 300,000 federal workers are already leaving voluntarily with generous severance pay and buyouts. So it's possible the federal government could be a million employees smaller than when Mr. Trump was inaugurated. And that brings me to another key point. Russ Boat believes in executive power. That means the President, by the way. I wanted you to hear all that because Rust Fault will seize this opportunity. Government shutdowns and there is a real consequence now for Democrats because now Republicans can downsize government and get rid of just pure government waste and bureaucrats. Bureaucrats that deserve to lose their jobs. The United States government has run its employment operations like it is some sort of charity. We are not a charity. We are not a nonprofit. We should run the government like a business. And by the way, a very, very well oiled machine business. You are using American tax dollars and American tax dollars should be protected. It's my hard earned money. It's your hard earned money. It's all of us that go to work and we give our money to the government and they've been abusing our money for a very long time. It is a problem and it's something that people should be upset about. And so now what we have is we have a Democratic Party that has given us an opportunity to right size the government to get rid I would say cut and cut deep. By the way, if you're really good at your job in the federal government, no hard feelings. Welcome the private sector where all of us operate all the time. And Chuck Schumer, he did this. We all know he did it. Schumer's own words online Republican just voted down our bill to avoid a government shutdown. It was 1.5 trillion spending due 90 days on top of what we already spent. You're insane. And 1.5 trillion in 90 days was going to go to support illegal immigrants and every policy that the American people just voted down from you guys. He said our bill would avoid a government shutdown at midnight and address the health care needs of the American people. That's a lie. You guys are addressing the health care needs of illegal immigrants who broke in this country. He then put his tweet. Republicans are plunging us into a government shutdown rather than fixing their healthcare crisis. Like I thought we had Obamacare. How is this a healthcare crisis? Where's the crisis? Am I wrong? Am I wrong? Didn't you say that if we have passed Obamacare that we would never have any other problems, Everybody would get coverage, everything would be fine. Like, I'm so confused right now. I, I am, I am incredibly confused by this rhetoric. I, I, I am incredibly confused. What explain to me how we have a new healthcare crisis. When you guys said that we fix the healthcare crisis and that there is no healthcare crisis, I, that you, you understand why I'm just dumbfounded by this. Why I sit here and I'm like, hold on a second. This doesn't make any sense. This shutdown is about one central theme. Democrats do not care about American citizens. What Democrats care about is illegal immigrants. First and foremost. They care about bringing in illegals at record numbers, giving them health care, giving them hotel rooms, giving them everything they need to not even have to work so that they will then vote for them forever. That is what they care about. That is the whole plan. It's not, they're not even hiding it. I go back to the border and if you wanted to know whose side they're on, whose team they're on, all you had to look at is when they sent the forklifts to the border to raise the bob wire that was put down by the Texas government, the state government, and they said, no, no, no, you can't do that. And they put the forklift under the razor wire, lifted it high into the air so that illegal immigrants could continue to flow into the United States of America. You don't hate the Democratic Party enough because the Democratic Party is not here to protect you. The Democratic Party is trying to destroy our way of life in this country. And they've decided that they're going to replace you with illegal immigrants who then they will cater to because they know they will vote for them because they gave them amnesty and health care and free food and free apartments and free groceries. They give it all away. Remember, this is all about giving it away. They want to give it away and they want you to pay for it. And that's why they're like, let's add 1.5 trillion to the deficit over a 90 day period holding the American people hostage. 1-877-381-3811. Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. We'll be right back.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

Our society works because of the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. Every day Americans should be able to speak openly and honestly about family and traditional values without retribution from the government. And that's a principle Pure Talk proudly supports. They sponsor my show, which allows me to stand strong behind the microphone every day and share the truth with you. If you want to support brands that defend freedom and pro American values, I strongly encourage you to switch your wireless service to PureTalk. You're going to get great 5G coverage on an extremely reliable and secure network. And with plans from just 25 bucks a month, you'll save a ton of money. And PureTalk also believes in creating American jobs and supporting America's small businesses. So if you're a small business owner, you can save even more while enjoying white glove service. Stand with the companies who share your values. Go to PureTalk.com Lavin that's PureTalk.com Levin to switch to my favorite wireless company right now, PureTalk, and you'll save an additional 50 off your first month. Again, PureTalk.com L E V I N Make the switch, folks. Make it today.

[Ben Ferguson]

Welcome back. It is THE Markovin Show. Mark will be back with you manana. And it's nice to have you with us. If you just join us tonight, we're talking about the government shutdown and some of the facts that you need to know about. Now, there has been a lie that no federal dollars are going to illegal immigrants. All right, I'm going to show you exactly why that is a lie. Federal dollars, your tax dollars in fact, do flow to illegal immigrants. Here are two proven ways that happens. Number one, emergency Medicaid. That equals billions of dollars a year in emergency Medicaid funds that go to ER and maternity care. It is a legal carve out. And are illegal immigrants covered under that? The answer is yes. That's one way that they're funneling money to illegal immigrant care. Number two, improper state claims. California, for example, their audit force repayment of 52.7 million. 52.7 million that was wrongfully billed to the federal government. That is just one state, one audit. And it's likely there's a lot more out there. Now, these are people that are, quote, not eligible for getting money. Well, the receipts tell the truth. The receipts don't lie. The money is clearly going to illegal immigrants in the hospital. So if you want to know why the Democrats decide to shut down the government, number one, it was to cover Chuck Schumer's a double S against aoc. Number two, the Democrat demands tell you everything. This is what they demanded to quote, avoid a government shutdown. Okay? This is their list, not mine. Free health care for illegals. Number one, restore funding for their propaganda machines. What I mean by that, restore money for the National Public Radio and for public broadcasting services. Why would the Democrats shut down the government demanding that the only way we keep it open is if we restore the NPR and PBS funding. I'll tell you exactly why. Because those are two of the state sponsored media arms, no different than China or Russia or South Korea putting out propaganda on behalf of the Democratic Party and attacking the Republican Party. So they desperately need NPR and PBS to be propped back up because otherwise they lose their juice, they lose their influence. They also want to revoke, listen carefully. Rural hospital funding. Why would the Democratic Party want to revoke rural hospital funding? I'll tell you exactly why. Cuz they want the money to go to illegal immigrants. And they're big sanctuary cities and major states. They don't care about rural America. They don't care about the farmers, they don't care about flyover country. They say, the hell with you guys. We want the money in New York City, we want the money in Baltimore, we want the money in Detroit. Right. We want the money in San Francisco and la. We don't want the money in rural America for hospitals. We don't care about actual hard working Americans minding their own business with their families on their 10 acres. They also demanded to avoid a government shutdown that we have massive expenditures that are reinstated for climate and diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI funding specifically, not for Americans. You ready for this? Here's the best part. Here's the kicker for foreign nations. So they want your tax hours to go to stop climate change in foreign nations. And they want your tax hours to go for diversity, equity, inclusion advocacy, training for foreign nations, not America, foreign nations. And then finally, I thought Obamacare was going to be amazing, right? Everybody was going to have healthcare. You got to keep your doctor if you liked your doctor. Remember that line, you got to keep your plan if you like your plan? Yeah. That was a lie. Well, what are they saying now? Well, one of their demands to avoid the government shutdown was to continue Biden's Obamacare subsidies. Now we had an election that just took place and in the election all of these things were on the ballot. Free health care for illegals. There was a candidate that wanted it, advocated for it and did it. Joe Biden. Then that candidate turned Into Kamala Harris. And guess what? She was in favor of it too. The other guy, Donald Trump said, no. There was a party and a person, Kamala Harris. It was like, we're going to keep funding these state sponsored media and NPR and pbs. And there was another guy named Donald Trump said, no, we're gonna cut it. There was a man that was advocating for rural areas and hospitals and that would be Donald Trump. There was. The other Democrats said, screw you guys. Like, it was on the ballot, folks. Climb and di funding Doge is a great example of that. For four nations. Donald Trump ran on saying, no, that's a terrible thing. We're not doing it. Democrats said, no, we want to send more of our money overseas to foreign nations. For DEI woke climate change. And, and again, the other party, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, their Obamacare subsidies were what they ran on. The American people said, we don't want it. And they voted for who? Donald Trump. All of the things that they're shutting the government down over, their biggest issues are things that were on the ballot. Okay? It just was. It was on the ballot, folks. Every single bit of it was on the ballot. 1 877-3813-811187-73813,008 11 I want to get your phone calls in here, get your reaction to all of this and see what you think. One other point I just want to make for you real quick also, and I'm going to go back to the audio on this. Um, Representative Dean. All right. Confronting Mike Johnson about Trump's fitness. You have a president who is unwell. This was caught on MSNBC earlier. This is how deranged the Democrats are. They're now trying to convince you that Donald Trump is unwell, unwell.

[White House Press Secretary]

But Trump's demeanor has led to different questions, to questions about whether or not.

[Ben Ferguson]

Donald Trump is unwell.

[White House Press Secretary]

Yesterday at this hour, as we were.

[Ben Ferguson]

Coming on the air in this hour.

[White House Press Secretary]

We started with Democratic Congresswoman Madeline Dean. She joined us to talk about the government shutdown.

[Ben Ferguson]

But literally seconds before she came on the air, as we saw her getting ready in the shot on the wall, we saw a confrontation take place between the congresswoman and Speaker Mike Johnson.

[White House Press Secretary]

And she confronted him about a lot.

[Ben Ferguson]

Of things, frankly, all the things you.

[White House Press Secretary]

Want to see Democrats fighting for and.

[Ben Ferguson]

Saying to Republicans, she said and did. And one of them was Donald Trump's fitness.

[White House Press Secretary]

Watch what our cameras caught and note.

[Ben Ferguson]

How his immediate response is not to say she's wrong about any of it. The president is unhinged. He is Unwell. What are you doing?

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

Your side are too. I don't control.

[White House Press Secretary]

Oh, my God.

[Ben Ferguson]

Please.

[White House Press Secretary]

That performance in front of the generals.

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

I didn't see it.

[White House Press Secretary]

It's so dangerous. You know, I serve on foreign affairs and appropriations.

[Ben Ferguson]

It's the collision of those two things.

[White House Press Secretary]

Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing.

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

I just left.

[White House Press Secretary]

You have a president who.

[Ben Ferguson]

You have a president. Unwell. Folks, this is the Democrats slandering our president. They want you to believe he's unwell. I wish they would have asked these questions of Biden.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

Our society works because of the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. Every day, Americans should be able to speak openly and honestly about family and traditional value without retribution from the government. And That's a principle PureTalk proudly supports. They sponsor my show, which allows me to stand strong behind the microphone every day and share the truth with you. If you want to support brands that defend freedom and pro American values, I strongly encourage you to switch your wireless service to PureTalk. You're going to get great 5G coverage on an extremely reliable and secure network. And with plans from just 25 bucks a month, you'll save a ton of money. And Pure Talk also believes in creating American jobs and supporting America's small businesses. So if you're a small business owner, you can save even more while enjoying white glove service. Stand with the companies who share your values. Go to PureTalk.com Levin that's PureTalk.com L E V I N to switch to my favorite wireless company right now, Pure Talk, and you'll save an additional 50% off your first month. Again, PureTalk.com L E V I N make the switch, folks. Make it today.

[Ben Ferguson]

Welcome back. It is the mark of in show, Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one, Mark Levin. Tonight, we've got a lot to chat about, including the government shutdown. I want to get your reaction to all of it. You can send me your comments on X at Ben Ferguson show there. Also, don't forget, I do a podcast and I'd love for you guys to grab it every day. It's called the Ben Ferguson Podcast. It's free wherever you get your podcast. And all the audio clips I'm playing tonight will be in the podcast tomorrow so you can share it and listen to it there. 877-381-3811 is the number 877-381-3811. We have a new conspiracy theory from the Democrats. It is now to say that Donald Trump is unwell. He's unfit for office. That Donald Trump is the most immature president we've ever had. Democrats thinking this, I don't know, sleight of hand will work during the government shutdown to confuse the American people. And somehow instead of blaming Chuck Schumer for the problem of the government being shut down, that you'll think this is Donald Trump being crazy. How do we know this is an orchestrated plan? Well, let me let you hear what Chuck Schumer said from the floor of the Senate. Listen carefully the words he uses when.

Democrats say we want to work with.

Republicans to lower premiums to strengthen health care.

All we are doing is reflecting what.

The American people already want. Nothing more, nothing less. They want us to sit down and negotiate something real that takes this huge.

Huge burden off their shoulders.

And Donald Trump, instead of acting like.

An adult, he's the most immature president.

We have ever had. Instead of doing something to stop the health care crisis is threatening to hurt countless hard working Americans. Let me repeat the quote Donald Trump said yesterday. We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible. They're bad for them and irreversible. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things they like, cutting programs they like. Donald Trump says it loud and clear. That's one thing about him. He is using the American people as pawns, threatening pain on the country as blackmail. Well, that's not going to work. The American people, it's so easy to.

See through those tactics.

They know this is the Trump shutdown. They know Republicans control the presidency, the Senate and the House. And what is done during a shutdown will fall squarely on the Republicans back. Donald Trump even says it. He says he is going to close down all these things people want. Donald Trump is the most immature president we've ever had. Donald Trump, instead of acting like an adult now Chuck Schumer is trying to Jedi mind trick the American people into believing somehow right now that this shutdown is the fault of Donald Trump. I think everyone knows very clearly that is a lie. And if that's not working, let me just go back and remind you what Chuck Schumer used to say about government shutdowns and what Nancy Pelosi used to sh say about government shutdowns. December 11, 2018 in the Oval Office with President Trump as Trump hosted a last ditch talk to avoid a government shutdown when Democrats were in charge in Congress. And here is what he had to say about shuts down shutdowns back then. We do not want to shut down.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

The government because you can't get your way.

[Ben Ferguson]

Let me say something, Mr. President, North.

Dakota, most unfortunate thing, we came in here in good faith and, and we're.

Entering into a, this kind of a.

Discussion in the public.

But it's not bad, Nancy.

No and no.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

It's called transparency.

[Ben Ferguson]

I know.

No, it's not transparency when we're not stipulating to a set of facts.

I love it. And when we're not stipulating to a set of facts, we are not here. We are not here to shut down the government. Well, now Democrats are under fire for these clips showing them slamming government shutdown tactics, the same ones that they're literally using as we speak right now. My good friend Scott Jennings saying this to Democrats on CNN about the government shutdown as well. Well, hopefully the Democrats come to their senses here and will go to the floor of the respective chambers and pass a clean continuing resolution. The Republicans put that on the floor. No tricks, no funny business, nothing up our sleeves.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

Just, hey, let's keep the government open.

[Ben Ferguson]

For another several weeks while we work.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

This through in a normal process. Democrats voted against that.

[Ben Ferguson]

And so I'm hoping they come out of this meeting thinking that that's a better option than simply shutting down the government. It's just not realistic, the demands they're making. Now, Donald Trump may get in the room and wheel and deal.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

He is a deal maker.

[Ben Ferguson]

So, like Speaker Johnson, I wouldn't want to predict what the President is willing to do on the fly, but I.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

Do think it's pretty reprehensible that the Democrats have taken us to the brink.

[Ben Ferguson]

Of a shutdown with a list of demands that, frankly, are just not even within the realm of the realistic right now. Not even in the realm of realistic right now. Now Democrats are lying about shutting down the government. Everyone knows it's a Schumer shutdown. It's not just realistic, the demands that they're making. Right. It's, it's insane. And the American people voted on this. The American people voted and said, we do not want to fund healthcare for 1.2 million illegal aliens. The American people did not vote for 1 trillion plus of of extra spinning. That would bring back NPR and PBS and money for transgender surgeries. The American people are done with funding. This woke BS with our tax hours that we've been funding for years. Elections have consequences. We all know it. Elections have real consequences. And we are witnessing right now what happens when there are real consequences. Democrats are out there and who are they supporting? A communist. Mandani, by the way, Republically, today refused to apologize for calling the NYPD racists. And saying we should abolish them and defund them. He was on the View. So if you want to know who the Democrats are right now, this is one of their leaders of their party.

[White House Press Secretary]

Have you formally apologized to the nypd?

[Ben Ferguson]

These are conversations that I'm having individually.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

With officers and I've appreciated that because it's through those conversations with rank and.

[Ben Ferguson]

File officers that I've learned more about the difficulties of this job.

[White House Press Secretary]

Have you formally apologized to the nypd?

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah. No. The answer is no, he is not. Why? Because this is who they are. And while all this is happening, there was some breaking news. The media doesn't want to tell you this. The S and P hit 6700 for the first time ever. An all new. An all. Let me rephrase that. A new all time closing high for the Dow. You think if a Democrat was in office, would they be just going berserk on the nightly news tonight? Yeah. Did they know? Because this, the state sponsored media at abc, NBC, CBS are scumbags. So here's a little bit, at least from cnbc, about the actual news that everyone should be talking about. Stocks shaking off the shutdown, charging higher. The S&P 500 hitting 6700 for the first time ever. A new all time closing high for the Dow as well. Fractionally the Nasdaq the best performer today, but closing just short of a record. Health care once again the best performing sector. That's thanks to drug stocks, utilities also a gainer. There you go. 21 seconds of just pure raw reporting. Oh, but no, no, no. We can't cover that. No. What do we have to do? We gotta talk about the Democrats. And are they willing to care about your feelings?

[Vice President J.D. Vance]

No.

[Ben Ferguson]

Do they care about all the Americans who aren't going to get paychecks in our government, including our military? No. Democrats cashing in their checks. We know that. Why? Because they were asked about it.

[White House Press Secretary]

So there's been several members of Congress that have asked Phil K. To withheld.

[Ben Ferguson]

If this shutdown extends.

[White House Press Secretary]

Do we advise democracy or is it up to them?

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, that's a question that every individual member is going to have to make on their own, as has always been the case in the past. First of all, that question is not even a ripe one because we're anticipating.

That this shutdown issue will be resolved.

You guys started it. The question is, when are you going to resolve it? The Democrat Schumer shutdown will cost Americans, it's now estimated by the CBO, 400 million a day. 400 million a day. This is their doing. They chose to do this. They said this is what we want to do. So it's 400 million a day for these antics that we're witnessing right now. And the Democrats care more about illegal aliens and American citizens. And that's why the Democrats shut down the government. The Democrat continuing resolution. Now that we're seeing the real dollars and cents, are you ready for this? The Democrats continuing resolution spends nearly 200 billion on healthcare subsidies for illegal immigrants and other non citizens. I'm going to go to this, to this to the Democrats. CR what they demanded. Ending Medicaid funding for non citizens. Cost of repeal 6.2 million. 28 million for ending enhanced FMAP for emergency care for legal immigrants. 34 million. Closing the California loophole. Ending Medicare funding for non citizens. Another 5 million. Ending Obamacare funding for non citizens. Another 91 million. Repealing the Obamacare special rule for illegal immigrants. 27 million total there 192 million. I'm sorry, I got that wrong billion. The total. If you add that all up. So you've got 200 billion on healthcare subsidies for illegal immigrants. That is what they shut down the government over. And Democrats shutting down the government because President Trump and Republicans are not forcing American taxpayers to to pay for free health care for illegal immigrants. That is what the president ran on. That is what he said he was going to do. That is what he believes. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one. Your phone calls. 877-3813, 811-877-3811. We'll be right back.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

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[Ben Ferguson]

All right. Welcome back. It is the Marco Van Show. Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great one. Let's get some of your phone calls in here. And he'll be back with you tomorrow as we're dealing with a government shutdown. 8773-8138-1187-7381,3011. Vice President J.D. vance saying this at the White House earlier.

[Vice President J.D. Vance]

The entire Democratic Party, the political leadership, not every Democrat nationwide, but the political leadership of their party has got it into their heads that the only way to be compassionate is to be compassionate to illegal aliens rather than American citizens. If you go back to what Bill Clinton was saying, even Barack Obama in some cases, what he was saying about illegal immigration 10, 15, 20 years ago. So you would put them on the MAGA, right, based purely on their rhetoric around illegal immigration. So I don't know why they've gone so far to the left. I think it's bad for the country. I think it's bad for them politically. But our principle, all I can do is speak for the president that I serve and the country, the administration that I serve. Right now we believe that the American people's government exists for the American people. That means the people who have the legal right to be here. And that's why we're fighting to reach reopen the government. And unfortunately the Democrats are fighting to shut it down for the benefit of illegal aliens.

[Ben Ferguson]

The that that is the best way that I can describe it as well. Let's get to your phone calls. 877-381-3-811. Let me go to Tony and Clifton. Welcome. You're on the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson with you tonight.

Hi, I'm Ben. What a treat. Listen, you know, I call this what's going on. I'm 100% for the government shutdown because we have drunken American market in house that are making a vote on how to handle the American economy when none of them have ever done anything with money that helped the American people. They've demonstrated. You've gone through it tonight. My answer to all this before we turn into the United countries of America instead of the United States of America is that as Mr. Kudlow said, shut down the government. We still need to go in and look and see. We're all like you said, there's this 200 billion in illegal all sort of nestled into different places of our Government, you know what, we did as best as we could. Our president was excellent. But we still need to look deeper and see where all this money is going. And now is the time that we have to do it.

[White House Press Secretary]

We don't want.

[Ben Ferguson]

Let me ask you, let's go back to layoffs real quick. Like the people being terminated. I think this is a huge opportunity and it's time to start laying people off right and left in our government. Our government's bloated. If it was a private business, there's no way that it would have the payroll that we have. It is unsustainable. We are literally not billions but trillions of dollars in debt. I think it is more than time to get rid of the government spending and to downsize our government, especially bureaucrats that believe that like once you get a government job, you should never lose your job. I also think that's totally insane. Are you okay with the president and the team going all in to get rid of a lot of government jobs? I'm in favor of it big time.

I'm in favor of it. Long overdue.

So no criticism if it comes out all of a sudden that this is where we are and this is what's going to happen.

No, because we have people serving right now that are serving against the government. That's number one. Because they're aware of where all these things are hidden in the nooks and crannies. So that's not a good thing. We have things hidden and things have to be confirmed where the money's going. In the meantime, we know that when we had Covid they were there having sex in the office and when they were in the office, otherwise they were never going to the White House except to have sex. That was another story there.

Keep going, keep going. Hurry.

So because we have an in house American Marxist group there, they need to be put on notice that you're holding up the funding, you're holding up the country because you guys have been bad with the money. You're like drunk in drunk. A drunk. You don't know when to stop spending and you can't be in charge of anything. We need to stop, look and listen. Everybody's on lockdown. They know what that means.

I appreciate the phone call. Thank you. Ma'. Am. It's good to talk to you. 1-877-381-3811 let me go to Jim. Welcome, you're on the Marco Vin show. Ben Ferguson with you. Hi.

Good to talk to you. Ben. This, this has been funny listening to you for the Last hour or so about the shutdown. Everyone's freaking out, like, this is a bad thing. This is exactly what I voted for. We have a million people we don't need on the payroll. Tomorrow morning, the first thing I want to see, they're gone. Sorry, they're gone. That's how it should be.

I would be cutting in such a hardcore way that Democrats would be fearful of shutting down the government for political reasons for a very long time.

Trump should read off the names as he's going. Trump, Schumer. You know, Schumer. This guy got. This guy's got you fired. Boom. Next guy, Schumer, he got you fired. I got you fired. This guy got you fired. Nothing is going to happen to the average American person if the government shut down. Why do we have a million people? Why do we have to be spending $400 million a day during a shutdown? What the actual hell? Think about that. We don't need this big government right now. Is your life changed? No. The top power turn on? Yes. Is the water running? Yes. We're talking on a cell phone. The Internet's working. Nothing broke. We're fine.

I. We are fine. And everything's gonna be fine. And anyone that acts like it's not fine, I'm sorry. You're a liar or you're an idiot. Look. And the government's still doing its job. Look at my hometown or of Memphis. Pam, Bonnie. There today, the man in charge of our military headset. There today, major arrests being made in Memphis after the arrival of the SAFE task force. The president is going into these woke liberal cities that are the crime capitals of America. The most deadly city in America, Memphis, Tennessee. And they're doing their jobs. Wow. By the way, the government's quote shut down. God bless America, folks. This is exactly what I'm all about. We'll be right back.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

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[Ben Ferguson]

He's here now, broadcasting them from the underground command post deep in the bowels of a hidden bunker somewhere under the brick and steel of a nondescript building. We've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Leven.

Government shut down in full effect. Is it an opportunity for Donald Trump to get more of what he wants done? Done? Welcome. Nice to have you with us in the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. And yes, this is a Schumer shutdown. Everybody knows it, including Democratic members of Congress who are now calling it a shutdown by the Democrats. That wasn't the talking points that Democrats, Democrats wanted. With a federal government partial shutdown, there is an opportunity for Donald Trump to do exactly what he promised during the campaign, to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse of your tax dollars. Trump is now signaling layoffs and spending cuts that could become permanent. So, yes, this shutdown could be a massive blessing in disguise for every American taxpayer. The federal government entering a partial shutdown early Wednesday because the Democrats on purpose failed to reach an agreement on a funding package, a clean cr. And President Trump suggested the standoff could open the door, he says, for big changes in the federal workforce. Senate lawmakers missed the deadline at midnight to approve a very simple budget budget for the fiscal year 2025, according now to FOX News. The short term funding extension that passed the House earlier in September, keeping the government running through November 21st. But bipartisan talks collapse when the Democrats said, no, we want to hold you hostage and we demand that you spend on things like healthcare for illegal immigrants. Now, in the hours leading up to the shutdown, President Trump made it very clear that while he did not want the government to close, he saw opportunities, quote, unquote in the crisis, saying, quote, we don't want it to shut down because we have the greatest period of time ever. I tell you, we have 17 trillion being invested. So the last person that wanted to shut down is us. He then added, now, with that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible people that are bad for them, referring to Democrats and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like Cutting programs that they like, referring to the Democrats. Now, Trump has repeatedly warned and pushed to reduce the size of government and slash federal programs. He says that waste your tax dollars. A shutdown does not grant grant new powers to the White House, but it does give the executive branch wide discretion over what services continue to operate. The standoff has turned into a battle of blame. Democrats going to TV saying this is all Trump's fault. But the problem is some Democrats didn't get the memo to lie. They told the truth that they are in fact shutting down the government. Democrats can accuse Republicans all they want of hijacking the process and falsely lying, claiming that they wanted to provide taxpayer funded health benefits only for Americans when it's in black and white. They wanted taxpayer funded health benefits for all illegal immigrants. Chuck Schumer said Tuesday, quote, they say that undocumented people are going to get these credits. That is absolutely false. This is one of the big lies that they're telling you. Well, you look at the op, Office of Budget Management and they made it very clear the Democrats are spending massive amounts of money if they got their way on illegal immigrant health care. Which brings me to Speaker Johnson on the government shutdown. Going back and reminding the American people of what really happened. Said the lies the Democrats and many in the media are telling. Take a listen the speaker on Fox.

[White House Press Secretary]

News members then it's going to be hard to get this resolved.

[Ben Ferguson]

All along Republicans wanted to shut the government down. Well, we do have the House speaker with us here in the studio tonight. Let's welcome in Mike Johnson, Louisiana. Good to see you, sir. Thank you for taking the time. I know that you have been very busy today.

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

Busy day. Those clips are hilarious. Hilarious to me. The House did its job. The House Republicans did our job. It's been over two weeks. We passed that continuing resolution. It's clean, it's simple, it's 24 pages in length. We were simply trying to buy time. And this is really important for everybody to remember, John, the reason we're doing this is that the appropriators are trying to rebuild the muscle memory to do appropriations to spend taxpayer dollars responsibly. And that takes 12 separate approach bills. We were doing that, working through the process. We ran out of time. We need seven more weeks. So we put a clean CR on the, on the table assuming that everybody, all the Democrats would do the right thing. They've rejected it now three times. As of today, the Senate Democrats, 44 of them have voted that cr, the clean cr down and they proposed Chuck Schumer's version, which is a dirty cr. Why do we say that? Because he wants to add $1.5 trillion in new spending to a seven week stopgap measure. And they want to give health care to illegal aliens, claw back the funds that we put in for rural hospitals and all sorts of other mayhem that we can't do that. We're just not going to do it.

[Ben Ferguson]

So this is the real point of contention here. I mean, obviously they want to restore some of the cuts that were enacted in the big beautiful bill when it comes to Medicaid funding. You listen to Speaker Johnson. The House Republicans did our job passing the CR over two weeks ago simply trying to buy time. The appropriators are trying to rebuild the muscle memory to do appropriations to spend taxpayers dollars responsively instead of irrationally and radical, which is what the Democrats wanted. And here is what the speaker had to say about some of the money, including health care for illegals, that we're.

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

Just not going to do it.

[Ben Ferguson]

So this is the real point of contention here. I mean, obviously they want to restore some of the cuts that were enacted in the big beautiful bill when it comes to Medicaid funding, etc. But Democrats insist our bill does not provide federal dollars for health care for illegal immigrants. And you say what?

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

I say they obviously have not read their bill. This counter proposal that he filed, everybody can Google it, go pull it up. It's on the Senate's website and in the legislative text. Go to page 57 of Chuck Schumer's bill and look at section 2141. It says right there in plain language, they want to repeal the health provisions of the one big beautiful bill.

[Ben Ferguson]

I do, I do part ways with you here on this idea of plain language. I read that whole section. It might as well be written in Mandarin.

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

And that's probably why the Democrats don't understand what they filed. But if you interpret that and you get through all the subsections, what you realize is they're trying to take out the, in its entirety, the reforms that we put into the big beautiful bill pertaining to health. And why is that so important? Because what we did was we strengthened the Medicaid program by making sure that ineligible recipients are not on the rolls. The CBO, the Congressional Budget Office on August 25th published a letter and they said this is going to do exactly what Republicans said. They estimate that 2.3 million illegal recipients for Medicaid will be pushed off the rolls because of our reforms and then it's going to save $185 billion of taxpayer funds. So they want to return all those ineligible people back to, to the roles and many of them are illegal aliens. That is a fact. And anybody who looks at it objectively has to say it's true.

[Ben Ferguson]

So you say it's a clean cr, the Democrats say it's a dirty cr. But the Committee for a Responsible. I love how calm the speaker is on this. He's trying to make it clear that this is all about the Democrats trying to slander and attack the Republicans doing the responsible thing. Just to put it in perspective, there were 17 different times the Republicans did not shut down the government when they had an opportunity to do it and instead went for a continuing resolution to make sure the government was open when the guy by the name of Joe Biden was president of the United States of America. Because Republicans understood that shutdowns are bad for the economy. Republicans understood that it was their job to protect the American people and also make sure that our government was functioning the right way. This is exactly why so many Americans voted for Donald Trump. They wanted there to be real accountability and they wanted to make sure that there wasn't money going to, you know, illegal immigrants by the hundreds of millions, something Caroline Levitt brought up at the White House.

[White House Press Secretary]

Democrats shut down the government because President Trump and the Republicans will not force American taxpayers to pay for free health care for illegal aliens. America is $37 trillion in debt. We cannot afford to provide taxpayer funded free health care to illegals who broke the law to enter our country.

[Ben Ferguson]

That is exactly why so many Americans decided to vote for Donald Trump. Quick break. We'll come back. It's the Mark Levin Show, Ben Ferguson with you. 1-877-3813-811. You can also send me your comments right now on X. I'll read them during the break at benferguson show again at Ben Ferguson show and if you're on Instagram, benferguson podcast A Little different Ben Ferguson podcast Much more Right after this.

Much love in.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

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[Ben Ferguson]

Welcome back. It is THE Markovin Show, Ben Ferry Ferguson filling in for the Great One. And I want to get to some of your phone calls. The number 1-887-738-1388 11 18773, 813811 Democrats calling Trump's bill a dirty bill. The speaker responding to that, in fact.

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

And anybody who looks at it objectively has to say it's true.

[Ben Ferguson]

So you say it's a clean cr, the Democrats say it's a dirty cr. But the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget seems to side with you. This is what the policy director, Chris Towner, said. The House CR is just about as clean of a CR as you could get. They really did seem to not want to rock the boat with it. It's been pointed out that this is similar funding measure that Chuck Schumer and eight other Democrats voted for in March. But it's a little bit apples to oranges because there have been a lot of changes made between March and and now, including cuts in the big beautiful bill, recessions package, the president's pocket recession. So do the Democrats have a point that, hey, this is not what we voted for?

[House Speaker Mike Johnson]

They don't have a point. The time and the place to argue over all of that is in the appropriations process. That's how the system works. What we're just trying to do is buy time. And they're exactly right in that analysis. I could have loaded this up with all sorts of partisan provisions and our, our policy riders and everything that we want, but we did, we didn't do that because we're, we're operating in good faith and we want our partners on the other side of the aisle to go along with us so that the appropriators can go and debate all these issues. That's how the system works and they're preventing it.

[Ben Ferguson]

So you and others, including the vice president earlier today, have said that Chuck Schumer is digging at his feet now because, by the way, Chuck Schumer is digging in his feet. I'll go back to what I said earlier this is the Schumer shutdown. We should say it over and over and over again. Tony, welcome. You are on the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson with you. Hello.

Yeah. Great honor to be on that show. And I love Mark Levin and I always enjoyed listening to him. I just wanted to say a little bit about the philosophy of the left. The left is interested only in obstructing Trump and his economic policy because Trump believes in the capitalist system. The capitalist system is a virtuous system that created wealth, created the Enlightenment. And if you go back to 4000 B.C. aristotle, the father of private property, gave rise to Cicero, Thomas Aquinas and John Locke. And of course, you get today the Trump revolution, the Trump revolution of information that is now spreading itself across the United States and in the world. In fact, in Canada and all other Western democracies. Italy as an example. Canada has a stronger left today because of Trump. So what does the Trump agenda believe in that is so fearful, that causes so much fear in Chuck Schumer and everybody else? It's because Trump is empowering the middle class, the middle class that had no voice, that had no economic clout, and 77 million people bought into that plant. So what is he doing? He's empowering through the capitalist system, through reduction of taxes. And what does Schumer say? Let's block the bill. Let's block it, because we gotta block anything that Trump does. Like Trump has said, if he ever found a cure for cancer, they'd be against it. How could you be against reduction of crime? They're against it. How can you be against reduction of taxes? They're against it. So what are they for? They're for the destruction of private property, private wealth, and the passing on of wealth, which is a virtuous concept in all of these great thinkers, from Cicero to Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. So what do they believe in? They believe in public, public property. What is dos Capital say about that private proper? They must annihilate, destroy private property and create a communal base of property. And this is what the left wants to do to the United States through universities, through their rigging of the elections, rigging of their voting districts. This is something that Trump has brought to the fore. Never before has any president done this. You may not like him, you may not like his periphery, but his core values on economics are 4,000 years old. They are from Aristotle to Trump. And you have to believe in that system. If you don't believe in that system, you don't believe in the United States, because the United States is based on wealth accumulation, passing it on from generation to generation. And that's how we got to the Enlightenment, because we were rich enough in the west to create all these great revolutions in the Industrial Revolution based on wealth and wealth accumulation. So wealth accumulation, Mr. Left and Mr. Schumer, is a virtuous pursuit for the betterment of the entire country. And if you don't believe that, then you are on the wrong side of economics. Sorry for the diatribe, but that's how I feel.

No, I don't disagree with you at all. I think what this also boils down to is there is a clear mandate from this administration by the people that voted for this administration, a very, very clear mandate. And that mandate is a mandate to cut government waste, fraud and abuse, to stop giving our tax dollars to people that invade this country, illegal immigrants, to stop making it easy for illegal immigrants to take advantage of us, because they would never do this for. Go to Mexico and see if you can get your kids in a public school. Go to go to Mexico and see if they'll give you a hotel room or a cell phone or allow you just hang out. They won't let you do it. You got to go down there as a tourist. And if you stop being a tourist that like, let me tell you like it, you're in for a very rude awakening. By the way, I actually don't have a problem with that at all. I don't have an issue with it. I think it's totally fine. And this is part of the reason why there are so many different people that are so happy with not only the president standing firm here and not giving in. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former member of the Senate, quote, congressional Democrats made the choice to shut down the government. Their partisan actions are undermining America on the world stage and jeopardizing our national security. He just tweeted this out a moment ago. I again, I agree with him. And I think what we do now is we take this as an opportunity. We take it as an opportunity to downsize the government even more. Trump administration, by the way, threatens to cut federal funding, legal action if three Democrats states defy ice. I'm going to have that story for you coming up next. Next.

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[Ben Ferguson]

Welcome back. It is the Mark Levin Show, Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one, Mark Levin. And if you just joined us, we are chatting right now about a very interesting subject and that is the government shutdown. JD Vance making sure he goes on seriously, serious offense explaining exactly what happened with this government shutdown, how we got to where we are. He said this at the White House as the media was of course losing their minds, yelling one of their questions to be answered. Mr. Vice President, that's a lot. Matt Boyle, okay, Mr. Vice President, there's two key Democrat lies I would like to get your take on and see if you can address. The first is the that you're seeing a number of top Democrat leaders from Kamala Harris to Chuck Schumer to Hakeem.

[Heritage Foundation Announcer]

Jeffries claim that it is a Republican.

[Ben Ferguson]

Shutdown caused by Trump. The second is that they're out there now claiming that they don't want to give health care to illegal aliens. Can you address both of those lies from the Democrat Party?

[Vice President J.D. Vance]

Yeah. So on the point that it's a Republican shutdown, look, it's obviously a Democratic shutdown. Just look at the vote totals in the House. Look at the vote totals in the Senate and look at the the President of the United States own action and conduct throughout this crisis. Nearly every single House Republican voted to open the government mat nearly every single Senate Republican voted to open the government last night. And even to their credit, a few moderate Democrats voted to open the government. That's not a Republican shutdown. When nearly every single Senate Democrat votes to shut it down and every Republican voted to open it up. It's just obviously not true. Now, you can disagree about a number of things, but you can't disagree about the obvious fact that Republicans voted to open the government. The president stands ready to sign that opening of the government. We just need a few more Democrats to join us in that effort to open the government. Your final question about illegal alien benefits. Look, the text is very clear. And I even saw, I think it was George Stephanopoulos in an interview with Mike Johnson, did a fact check that was totally rooted in baseless claims. It was basically Democrat propaganda. If you look at the legislative text that they gave us, they tried to turn on two separate provisions that would give health care benefits to illegal aliens. Number one, if you're an American citizen, you've been to a hospital in the last few years, you probably noticed that wait times are especially large. And very often somebody who's there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien. Very often a person who can't even speak English. Why do those people get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens? The answer is a decision made by the Biden administration that the Trump administration, working with Congressional Republicans undid. We turned off that money spigot to health care funding for illegal aliens. The Democrats, in their legislative texts, want to turn it back on. That's one thing. The second thing, Matt, is we all know that there are various ways in which the Biden administration waved away illegal immigration status. They gave parolees, they gave asylum claims to people who were really claiming asylum. And when they waved the magic wand of amnesty, giving millions of people legal status even though they were in the country illegally, they also gave those people access to health care benefits. So what the Democrats are engaging in is a sleight of hand. They're saying, no, no, no, those weren't illegal aliens who were getting health care benefits, benefits, even though everybody, excuse me, knows they were in the country illegally. It's a lie told by the Democrats that they're not trying to give health care benefits to illegal aliens. It's a lie that is obviously untrue if you just look at the text that they gave us. And all you have to do is understand that this is about who benefits. We think the American people's government ought to benefit American citizens. The Democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit illegal alien aliens. The contrast couldn't be more clear.

[Ben Ferguson]

I love it. I absolutely love when the vice President goes off with facts, unlike the Democrats. 1 877-381-3811-187738-13811 Red in Dallas, Texas, welcome. You're on the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson with you. Hello.

How you doing, Ben?

Good. How are you, man?

Just fine. When a J.D. vance gave that speech at the White House, he gave that immediately after having a meeting with Hakeem Jeffries and Schumer Is that correct?

That would have been the day before.

You just. That speech you just. Speech you just played.

No, that was the day before is when they met.

Yeah. So there was no press. There was no press at that meeting inside that meeting room because Trump did not want. Want the press inside that meeting room. Correct.

If I'm not mistaken, Democrats actually said they wanted red, Red, red, red. We can have a conversation. Red. We can have a conversation. It's okay. Democrats criticized last time they had the meeting. And I played it for you earlier for being public. The president referred to it as being transparent. Democrats lost their mind because they didn't like the transparency. Democrats wanted a closed door meeting. They had that closed door meeting. That, what, what you just described is a day later. So you're incorrect in what you're saying, in fact should matter. So with that being said, go ahead.

Well, usually when Trump has anybody at the White House, whether it being a sport team or another dictator, there's press everywhere.

What dictator do they happen? What dictator do they have? I'm gonna take the bait on, on that one.

Venezuela. There we go.

But do you know who's in charge of Venezuela meeting?

He ordered the press to not be at that meeting. And then. J.D.

Wait, wait. Do you know who's the president? Venezuela.

Yeah.

Who?

Victor. Oh, that's hungry. That's right. Right.

Yeah. That would be like completely on the.

Opposite side of the world when he bites. Like, you know, how about Putin, you know, rolling the red carpet out.

Hold on, hold on. You just said, And I'm sorry, you chose to go down this, this road, not me. You just said that the President, United States of America, when he was meeting with dictators, the White House. And I said, who? And you just said, Venezuela. Then you said, Viktor Orban. Viktor Orban's not a dictator. He's also from Hungary. And I said, who's the leader of Venezuela now? By now you should have enough time to like, use your, your Obama phone and Google it. Who's the leader of Venezuela?

I don't. For me, sir, you're the one that brought it up.

I know.

I don't know when there's, when they're.

Okay, so, so, so it's fair to say that what you just said was, was an attack on Donald Trump based in, like, total crap lies, Right?

Well, there's press when there's, there's a soccer.

No, no, no, no, no. You said that the president rolled out the red carpet for dictators, and you said Venezuela. Then you said Viktor Orban. Wrong Country Hungary. Hungary is very far away from Venezuela. The leader of Venezuela, you still don't know who it is. I think everybody listening knows that, so I'll tell you who it is. Is a guy by the name of Maduro. Do you know who that is?

And in Alaska, did he not have the troops roll out the red carpet?

Hold on. Did Maduro. Did Maduro ever. I'm going back to what you said red. I'm said red. Red. You said it, I didn't. You went down this road. You decided to lie. When did the White House roll out the red carpet for Maduro, the dictator.

Of Venezuela and Trump did you know.

We'Re talking about Venezuela? You brought up Venezuela in that country. I'm not letting you off the ropes on this one. When did Nicholas Maduro meet with Donald Trump at the White House with a red carpet?

Well, they did with Putin and Alaska, sir. That's what I was referring to. And they had a military flag.

Okay? No, you weren't referring to that. You referred to Venezuela and you said Venezuela. Everyone heard you say it. Then you didn't know the leader was. Then you said a guy by the name of Viktor Orban from Hungary on the other side of the world. That was wrong. And now you're still saying that the President rolled out the red carpet. The White House. Where did the President meet with Vladimir Putin? It wasn't at the White House, was it?

It was in Alaska though. It was on American soil.

Okay, so we're changing it now. Hold on. So hold on. Let's, let's just, let's just go back through this real quick. Nicolas Maduro is a guy that gained power in Venezuela. He's participating corrupt and violent narco terrorism. The President has openly said that. The President did not roll out the red carpet for Maduro, as you lied and said earlier. In fact, what the President did roll out for Maduro. Maduro was a $50 million reward for the arrest of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, who has been declared as part of a terrorist organization with narco terrorism. And under Donald Trump, the US doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan President Maduro for 50 million, accusing him of committing heinous crimes. You said that Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for Maduro, who you didn't even know what his name was. And President Trump, by the way, has been a longtime critic of Maduro. He returned to office in January following election marred by voter rigging allegations. The results were widely rejected by the international community. The Attorney General, Pam Bondi didn't roll out the red carpet for Maduro either. They said the US would double its already announced reward from 25 million to 50 million because he's directly linked to drug smuggling operations that are killing Americans. So. So let's just be clear. You lied. You made a partisan attack because you hate. You have Trump derangement syndrome. You didn't know the leader was of Venezuela. You named the wrong person. You then said they rolled out the red carpet at the White House. A $50 million bounty on your head for your arrest doesn't sound like the red carpet to me. Then you lied and you said Vladimir Putin was given the red carpet at the White House when it actually wasn't the White House. They had a meeting. Meeting where? In Alaska. And they had the meeting in Alaska. That showed an incredible amount of force, by the way, with our military. Holy crap. If you didn't see that, it was pretty impressive. And the President was trying to stop a war between Ukraine and Russia that's killed literally more than a million people. And. And you're angry at him for that? This is Trump Derangement Syndrome 101.

Can you name any one of the seven wars his claim established? Cops. That's. You know, I'll wait for that.

Sure. He gave the list several times. In fact, I can even play for you the press conference if you want that. Would you like, Would you like me to play that for you? Like, is that. Is that. I mean, he ended, by the way, six of seven wars, and you're saying that that never happened? Is that what you're telling me?

The Pakistan, Indian war. Now he never, he never did anything over there.

Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Did he meet with those countries and have America lead on those countries?

Nope. I mean, he met.

Okay, so he didn't meet with Israel or Iran. He didn't meet with Rwanda and the Republic of Congo. He didn't meet with Thailand and Cambodia. He didn't meet with India and Pakistan. He didn't do Egypt and Ethiopia, and he didn't do Serbia and Kosovo. That's what you're telling me. Okay, so. So let's just recap this. Donald Trump's never done anything, right? And he wrote out the red carpet from Maduro, even though it's a 50 million dollar bounty on his head. And we wrote the red carpet for Adam and Putin at the White House, but that ever happened. So in other words, everything you've said tonight has been a lie. Thanks for playing, though. It's been really Fun. By the way, I'd call with a fake name like Red too if I was calling in making up the crap you are. Cuz I wouldn't want my friends to hear my actual name. 877-381-3811. I slay the commies here, folks. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one. That guy needs a water to put out those flames. We'll be right back.

Mark Levin.

All right, I, I rarely promote other people's podcasts, Mr. Producer, but there's a big breaking news night. Have you seen it? Have you seen this news? Chelsea Clinton put this tweet out a moment ago. How many of us have looked at the latest headlines and thought, quote, that can't be true? Starting tomorrow, I hope you would join me and a series of experts on my podcast, that Can't Be True. Together we will sort fact from fiction, especially on issues impacting our health. The Clinton foundation apparently is part of this. Lemonada is another part of it. That can't be true with Chelsea Clinton. So I, I, I was if you want to retweet me, you can. I thought I'd, you know, just ask a question. Let's see how honest this show's going to be. Quote, I did not have sex with that woman, Bill Clinton. That can't be true. Hashtag Chelsea Clinton, Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. If anybody out there in Twitter world wants to help that one go viral, you can retweet it now. It's up there. You can follow me at Benfergusonshow. Stop it, Mr. Producer. He's laughing. It's true. I'm just asking, like, is that going to be in there? Like, it can't be true, right? I did not have sex with that woman. Sexual. Oh, is it sexual relations? Should I change it? Should I update it? Okay, well, you can tweet it at Ben Ferguson show on X and you can retweet it right now. I do think this one should get a little viral attention. Why not? All right, let me go to your phone calls. 1-877-381-3811. Mr. Producer, where do you want me to go next? Let's go to line one. Spencer, welcome. You are on the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson with you. Hi.

Hey, Ben. How you doing?

I'm good, sir.

How are you calling in? I'm doing great. I want to tie something back to something you did at the beginning of your show. You asked Siri how much do senators make a year and it said $174,000 I like to know what I get for my money since we're the ones essentially paying them. So I figured we bought a government shutdown and how much did that cost us? And most people get paid by the hour, so it's so many dollars per hour. So I looked up and say how many days do senators work in a year? And it came back to roughly 145 days a year. So you go 145 days times eight hours a day. That comes out to 1160 hours in a year. The average person who works 40 hours a week works 2080 hours in a year. So they're working just over half as many hours as the average American. Well, if you take the hundred and seventy four thousand dollars they get paid per year and divide that by the 11 thou or the 1,160 hours they work, it comes out to almost $150 an hour.

So your point is what? You think they're not working hard enough for you? Come on.

I think Congress is severely overpaid because you have a bunch of Ivy League, college educated lawyers and politicians who can't balance a checkbook.

Well, I mean I told you in the first hour that was that senators like, man, I can't miss a paycheck. I'm sorry, I just can't. And he's like, I got mortgages to pay. And I'm like, hold on a second. You're going to not miss a paycheck check, but people in our military are. People that make a lot less than 170 plus thousand dollars a year that work for the government are going to miss a paycheck. You don't give a crap about them. That like that's the truth here, right? Like if we're going to be really honest about that is the truth.

That is pretty much exactly what my point is. How is somebody who makes a hundred and fifty dollars an hour I can't miss a paycheck, otherwise my world's gonna come apart.

Yeah, yeah. Well if they, I mean if you're living paycheck to paycheck as a United States Senator, you shouldn't be a senator. And it's not because you don't have enough money. It's because you're clearly incompetent. And by the way, if you're a Democrat, you ought to just go meet with Nancy Pelosi and be like, hey, help me get rich because she's done a damn good job of it. I'm, I'm just saying, I'm just saying saying, don't forget all the clips that we play today. I will put them in the podcast tomorrow. That I can promise you. So make sure you grab the Mark Levin podcast. You can listen to the show, share it tomorrow. Also, I'd love to keep up with you. I do two different shows. Ben Ferguson Podcast, Wherever you get your podcast, it's free and tomorrow those clips will be in there. Also, if you want a quick update on what's happening at the White House, I do a cool show every morning. It's about 10 to 12 minutes long. It's called the 4:47 morning update. It's wherever you get your podcast, you'll know exactly what's coming out of the White House every day. It's called the 47 Morning Update. Wherever you get your podcasts, Mark will be back with you tomorrow. Don't forget, grab his book as well. Right on power. Wherever you get your books as well. And we'll see you back here tomorrow.